Carton and method of making it



Nov. 7, 1950 R. M. BERGSTEIN 2,529,123

CARTON AND METHOD OF mxmc IT Filed Aug. 6, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet. 1

ROBERT MORRIS BERGSTElN INVENTOR.

BY @a'iwvglluk ATTORNEY S Patented Nov. 7, 1950 CARTON AND METHOD OF MAKING IT Robert Morris Bergstein, Cincinnati, Ohio, as-

signor to Robert Morris Bergstein and Frank Bergstein, trustees Application August 6, 1945, Serial No. 609,091

3 Claims. 1

There has in the past been a large and growing market for transparent containers made in whole or in part from acetate sheeting." This term is accurately used to describe rigid or still cellulose acetate sheets, generally in the thickness range between .005 and .020 inch. Similar rigid or stiff transparent materials made from other bases have been used, including ethyl cellulose, cellulose nitrate and various plastics. Herein I shall use the term sheeting to refer to all of them.

One of the major problems in supplying a growing demand for such containers is the lack of suitable means for fabricating them on a large scale. Sheeting can be folded or bent upon heating; but when it has cooled it can no longer be flexed at the line of fold. Hence such containers have been made only as set up or erect boxes. Their bulk is therefore out of proportion to their weight in shipment and storage. Moreover, the fabrication of the sheeting into containers has been carried on with relatively simple hand tools, and the manufacturing cost has been high.

So called window cartons, having a perforation in one wall covered by cellophane or a like nonrigid film have been developed and have come into very substantial commercial use. These are knock down structures, excellent for many uses;

but they have essentially a different utility and lie in a different field. They are by no means substitutes for containers having one or more walls formed from stifi sheeting. Moreover, the window carton is a structurally complete paper board box. boxes involves considerable wastage of board, because board must be removed as a cut-out in the blank to make the window. The board so removed is a scrap loss.

It is an object of this invention to combine material required is reduced to a minimum. It is an object of the invention to provide a carton with walls of paper board and a wall of sheeting, the latter wall being a true structural com- Hence the manufacture of these ponent of the box which would not be self-sustaining without it. It is an object of my invention to provide a carton of the kind set forth in which further novel features make for a finished appearance of the transparent wall upon closure of the carton.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of manufacture as well as a carton construction, both being adapted to high speed mechanization. Thus my cartons can be produced on a volume basis with economy.

These and other objects of my invention which will be noted hereinafter or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that construction and arrangement of parts and by that procedure of which I shall now describe exemplary embodiments. Reference is made to the drawings Wherein- Figure 1 is a plan view of a cut and creased blank of paper board for my carton.

Figure 2 is a plan view of a piece of sheeting cut to size for use with the blank of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an isometric view of the blank of Figure 1 with adhesive applied to the flanges or glue flaps thereof.

Figure 4 is a similar view of the blank with the piece of sheeting registered on it.

Figure 5 shows the blank after the edge portions of it have been folded inwardly, and illustrates the carton in the completed knocked down condition.

Figure 6 is a partial isometric view showing the carton in erected but unclosed condition.

Figure 7 is an isometric view of the closed carton.

In the practice of the exemplary embodiment of my invention I provide a paper board blank such as that shown in Figure 1 having a back wall I demarked by score lines 2 and 3 from side walls 4 and 5. Flanges or glue flaps 6 and I are articulated on score lines 8 and 9 to the side walls. The glue flap are substantially of the full length of the side and back walls; but near their ends they are preferably cut back as shown at III for a purpose later to be described.

End wall members H and I2 are articulated to the ends of the back wall, and are provided with articulated tuck flaps l3 and It. Small flaps l5 and it are articulated to the ends of the side walls 4 and 5 as shown.

The blank illustrated in Figure 1 has no front wall. The place of the front wall is taken by a piece or panel of stiff sheeting l'l, shown in Figure 2. This panel is cut to a size which is preferably the same or substantially the same as that of the back wall.

The blank of Figure 1 and the panel of Figure 2 are assembled together in such manner as to make a complete carton. Although thi operation can be carried on by hand, it is preferable to carry it on by machine, as hereinafter set forth. In the operations involved (which are diagrammatically illustrated in Figures 3, 4 and 5) adhesive is applied to the flanges or glue flaps 6 and I. The adhesive will be one capable of bonding the paper board-and thesheeting. The areas of adhesive application are indicated by shading at I8 and I9 and it will be noted that these areas or stripes terminate short of the ends of the flanges or glue flaps. The ends of these members should be left free of adhesive for a length equal to the depth of the tuck flaps I3 and I4, or for a slightly greater length.

The sheetingpanel I1 is placed upon the blank in ofl'set relationship, i. e. in such manner that it partially overlies the back wall I and overlies one Of the side walls {or 5. Figure 4 illustrates the panel as covering side wall 5. Then the paper board blank is f o lded in such manner that the glue flaps or flanges B and I are brought against and adhered to lateral marginal portions of the panel II. With the panel positioned as illustrated in Figure 4, this is accomplished by bending inwardly the glue-flap or flange I along the score line 9 and bending inwardly both the glue flap 6 and the side wall 4 along the score line 2. Were the panel I1 spotted or positioned on the blank so as to overlie the back wall and the side wall 4, the bending would be accomplished along some lines 3 and 8 as will now be clear.

The resultant tubed structure in knocked down form is shown in Figure 5. It will be noted that the exemplary embodiment is a tubular carton having four enclosing body walls in articulation, three of which are of paper board and one of which is of sheeting.

The application of adhesive to the paper board blank and the folding of the blank along longitudinal score lines can be accomplished by mechanisms such as those in current use for tubing knocked down cartons, as will be readily understood. These machines are adjustable, and as such will require as further modification only the arrangement of the glue applying mechanisms to apply the required kind of adhesive, and to limit the application of the adhesive to areas I8 and I9 terminating short of the ends of the glue flaps.

Mechanism must be added to such machines, however, to apply and position the panel II on the blanks prior to folding. Attention is called to my PatentNo. Re. 20,789, issued July 12, 1938, wherein is shown gluing and folding means for carbon blanks in combination with means whereby a bag tube is progressively formed, severed into lengths and the individual bags deposited upon the cartons preparatory to the carton folding operations. Also in my Patent No. 2,166,388, issued July 18, 1939, I have disclosed carton folding mechanism in combination with means whereby bags are moved in from the side of the path of travel of the cartons, the bags being then deposited and positioned upon the blanks prior to the folding of the blanks. These mechanisms with appropriate adjustment may be employed to bring .the blanks of Figure 1 of this application and the panels of Figure 2 into contact and proper registry, as hereinabove described. In a machine such as that shown in my Patent Re.

20,789 the sheeting may be unwound as a strip from a roll of suitable width and cut off into individual panels by a fly knife arrangement such as there shown. In using a mechanism similar to that of my Patent 2,166,388 the panels I] may be performed, placed in a feeding hopper and fed out individually, as will be readily understood.

The formation of the cartons of this invention is thus readily accomplished by high speed machines making the manufacture of my cartons economical and rapid.

As will-be evident from Figures 5 and 6, my exemplary structure resembles a tuck end carton excepting for the structural differences here inabove noted. It may be closed in the ordinary way as a tuck end carton if desired; but a great advantage of my structure liesin the fact that it may be closed as illustrated in Figure 7. The small flaps l5 and I 6 are folded over inwardly; but the tuck flaps I3 and I4 are engaged outside the panel II, the ends of these tuck flaps being caught beneath the ends of the flanges or glue flaps 6 and I. When this is done, an attractive paper board frame is made around the transparent panel I, the frame consisting of the tuck flaps l3 and I 4 and the glue flaps or flanges 6 and I. The cutting back of the ends of the glue flaps or flanges, as at, It, enhances the attractiveness of this frame. While that is not ordinarily necessary, my box may be sealed by an application of adhesive-in such manner as to adhere the tuck flaps l3 and I4 to the ends of the panel I.

In this fashion I have provided a knock down carton having the advantage of a transparent wall I'I formed of stiff sheeting. For many purposes a single transparent wall is sufficient, while the construction of my boxes is very much cheaper than boxes heretofore made of the sheeting alone, having the further advantage of being collapsible for shipment and storage.

Modifications may be made in my invention without departing from the spirit of it. It is not beyond the scope of the teachings herein to make more than one wall of the carton of rigid or stiff sheeting, as will be evident. Moreover, the structural features 'of my invention are not limited to the use of sheeting as defined since other materials may be employed in the place of sheet-' ing. By way of example, in accordance with my structure, I may provide a box having a wall of expensive or highly decorated material having suflicient rigidity or stiflness to serve'as a structural part of a box of the character described, the

remainder of the box being made of less expensive paper board material.

Having thus described my invention in an exemplary embodiment, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A rectangular box comprising a bottom panel, side and end walls integral with said bottom panel, said side and end walls each having a substantially coextensive longitudinally attached flange, a panel of non-scorable'sheeting having substantially the dimensions of said bottom panel and forming the top panel of said box to which the said side flanges are adhesively secured except at end portions thereof, the said end flanges forming tuck-in flaps which are received between the unsecured ends of the said side flanges and said top panel.

2. The box structure of claim 1 wherein said side flanges are secured to the outer side of said top panel and wherein said side and end flanges together form a frame about said top panel, said top panel being a panel of transparent sheeting.

3. A rectangular box comprising a bottom panel, side and end walls integral with said bottom panel, said side and end walls each having a substantially coextensive longitudinally attached flange, a panel of non-scorable sheeting having substantially the dimensions of said bottom panel and forming the top panel of said box, the said side flanges being adhesively secured to said top panel and having free portion for receiving end portions of said end flanges, said end flanges forming tuck-in flaps for interengagement with the free portions of said side flanges.

ROBERT MORRIS BERGSTEIN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent;

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,000,960 Bell Aug. 15, 1911 1,824,927 Powell Sept. 29, 1931 1,900,953 Rosen Mar. 14, 1933 1,938,910 Keller Dec. 12, 1933 2,087,444 Potdevin July 20, 1937 2,106,663 Schlegel Jan. 25, 1938 2,296,896 Bergstein Sept. 29, 1942 2,346,466 Belsinger Apr. 11, 1944 

